Biography

A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Billy Marquart began his boxing career at a young age, training out of the local YMCA. By the age of 18 he was already the Canadian amateur featherweight champion, a title that he held for four consecutive years from 1933 through 1936. At his peak he represented Canada at the 1936 Summer Olympics, making it to the quarter-finals before losing to Dezső Frigyes of Hungary, the eventual fourth-place finisher. He then embarked upon a professional career, coming close to obtaining the world lightweight title, but never quite achieving it. He eventually moved to the United States permanently and joined the country’s Navy in June of 1942, the same month in which he TKOed Cleo McNeal in his final professional fight. Marquart died of a heart attack in his Chicago home eighteen years later, at the age of only 45.

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